From the Desk of Dianne Edmondson — March 2019

Being your Denton County Commissioner has been a real trip – a road trip! My staff and I are driving the roads in Precinct 4 to identify any problem areas and, already, we have found quite a few.

We will be assessing the roads as to their condition, traffic counts, usage for school bus routes and other factors to begin determining the schedule for upcoming roadwork.

Several current projects are already under contract along the length and width of Precinct 4 from Flower Mound to Krum and places in between such as Argyle, Justin, Northlake, Ponder and others. We will be adding additional projects throughout the year as our budget and our road crews’ schedules permit.

Soon, we will be sending periodic updates through a newsletter that will include more details about ongoing projects. To receive the Precinct 4 newsletter, please email me at Dianne.Edmondson@dentoncounty.com. We will make sure you are on the newsletter mailing list.

In the past few weeks, the Denton County Commissioners Court has received updates from several municipalities and communities within the county starting with Argyle Mayor Don Moser. Other mayors and community officials will give presentations in alphabetical order. Bartonville officials presented on Feb. 26 and Copper Canyon officials will present in March.

I am very proud of all of the accomplishments in Precinct 4 cities and towns and find it very interesting to hear from all of our neighboring communities. I would like to invite residents to check with us to learn when their mayor will be presenting. An easy way to find out is to check our agendas at www.DentonCounty.com. You also are welcome to attend the Commissioners Court meeting to watch the presentation. You can also view the meetings via Facebook Live on the Denton County Facebook page.

In recent weeks, I have been meeting with area mayors as well as county department heads to get a good feel for their responsibilities. My goal is to learn how best we can all work together. Denton County department heads I have met with include Dawn Cobb, Director of Community Relations; Jody Gonzalez, Director of Emergency Services; Frank Phillips, Elections Administrator; Scott Arledge, Director of Purchasing; Jona Macsas, Budget Officer, and Public Works Director Fred Ehler. I have been very impressed with their expertise, professionalism and dedication – not only these department heads but also virtually every county employee with whom I have interacted.

I really enjoy serving on behalf of Denton County residents. Moreover, as your Precinct 4 Commissioner, I am learning a lot about how your county government operates, including specific details about the budget, such as the fact that the largest amount of budgeted dollars is for public safety, which totaled $72,467,695 for the adopted budget in 2018-2019.

And yet, at $0.225574, the 2018 tax rate is the lowest it has been since 1996 when it was $0.266900. We truly are a fiscally conservative county, and I’m pleased to announce that I have recently approved additional funding within the current budget for safety lights on some of our road/bridge vehicles.